Broken Data: Broken World

Abstract

In a world where predictive big data analytics and data driven policy and design are increasingly prevalent, the concept of broken data seeks to interrogate and disrupt the possibilities associated with these trends. Concepts of breakage, damage and repair, and recent literatures about ‘broken world’ type theories, offer us an alternative starting point: what are the implications of putting these concepts at the centre of our understanding of digital data and its futures? By whom and where does data explicitly and more invisibly manifest itself as broken, incomplete and damaged? How is it repaired?What might an agenda for broken data research look like? And why might we need one?